The governor said the financial crash was due to a failure in the system, not individuals Credit: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

In one of his last interviews before stepping down as governor, Sir Mervyn gave this assessment of the financial meltdown:

What bankers did was not the only explanation of the crisis that we had.

What we had was a world in which interest rates had become very low, investors of all kinds - not just banks - were desperately searching for ways in which they could earn more return, so they took big risks.

Those risks, some of them, went wrong.

Where the banks contributed to the problem was that they themselves had taken too many risks on their balance sheet and they simply didn't have enough capital to absorb the losses that were likely to come along.

People took fright, they lost confidence in the banks, they wouldn't provide money to the banks so the banks couldn't lend to businesses or households.

I would say to people, though, don't demonise individuals here. This wasn't a problem of individuals, this was a problem of a failure of a system.

We collectively allowed the banking system to become too big, we gave it far too much status and standing in society and we didn't regulate it adequately by ensuring that they had enough capital. We have to put that right.